There is a nice article about the role of a critic in the summer issue of 'Animated', the journal of The Foundation for Community Dance in the UK.<P>There are some funny quotes about critics, usually by their targets, which i thought i would share with you:<P>- Lord Byron, 'As soon seek roses in December, ice in June; hope constancy in wind or corn in chaff; believe an epitaph, or any other thing that's false, before you trust in critics.<P>- Christopher Hampton (playright), 'Asking a working writer how he feels about critics is like asking a lamppost how he feels about dogs.'<P>- Anonymous theatre director, 'A critic is someone who goes to the top of a high hill and watches a battle in the valley below, then goes down and stabs the wounded'<P>- Vladimir and Estragon in 'Waiting for Godot' after a series of increasingly vitriolic curses, the final one, 'Critic!'<P>Anyone got any other goodies.<p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited July 08, 2000).]

Robert Porterfield, founder of the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA, said, "We all know what a critic is; a critic is a eunuch at a gang-bang."<P><BR>I think critics -- good ones -- are essential to art. For a wonderful essay on critics, -- including particular attention paid to our Mr. Barnes -- read William Goldman's "The Season".<BR><P>------------------<BR>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<BR>Jeffrey E. Salzberg,<BR>Lighting Designer<BR>Online portfolio, now including "This Day in Arts History:<BR><A HREF="http://www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg<BR>" TARGET=_blank>http://www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg<BR></A> <BR>

welcome jerry, nice to 'meet' you! <P>thanks for that contribution, salzberg - i was beginning to feel that this thread might be just full of insults to one of my roles...even if they ARE funny, it still makes one a LITTLE uncomfortable...

Grace, darlin', I doubt if anyone would ever call you a eunuch.<P>Critics -- especially young ones -- can be educated.<P>When I lived in Houston, we had a woman (I'll call her Cynthia") who would occasionally review smaller local dance performances for the Houston Chronicle, especially when their main dance critic was busy with Houston Ballet and major touring shows. Cynthia was a good writer, but always included in her reviews gratuitous personal criticisms of individual dancers (It's one thing to say, "This choreography seems unsuited to X's body type"; it's quite another to say, "Anyone with a body like X's should never be a dancer.").<P>When I'd run into Cynthia in the lobby before a show or during intermission, I always made it a point to introduce her to whatever dancers I saw in the audience and y'know what? Once she started seeing dancers as living, breathing humans, the gratuitous remarks stopped.<BR><P>------------------<BR>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<BR>Jeffrey E. Salzberg,<BR>Lighting Designer<BR>Online portfolio, now including "This Day in Arts History":<BR><A HREF="http://www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg" TARGET=_blank>http://www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg</A> <P>

I like the other side of the fence, also. I enjoy critics acerbic comments if they fit and they're really good. I also like to see a comeuppance directed to a deserving critic.<P>Here's one:<P>Dame Lilian Braithwaite was an English comedic actress during the early, mid 1900's. James Agate, the drama critic, introduced himself to Lilian at a party saying somewhat tactlessly,"For a long time I have wanted to tell you I regard you as the second-best actress in London."<BR>"I'm so flattered to hear that from the second-best drama critic in London."she replied.<BR><p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited July 11, 2000).]

I was having a trip down Memory Lane and found this old topic that I thought was worth pushing to the top.<P>And here's Clement Crisp not at all full of seasonal cheer regarding 'A Christmas Carol';<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><BR>'..some child performers of hugely resistible skills caper about, and Tiny Tim does his hopalong thing, even unto speech. Ah, Herod, where are you when we need you?'<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited May 25, 2001).]

*snigger snigger* That was hilarious, Stuart.<P>My contributions:<P>"Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic." - Jean Sibelius <P>(I think that's the one Jerry was referring to)<P>"The lot of critics is to be remembered <BR>by what they failed to understand." - George Moore <P>"You know who critics are? The men who have failed in literature and art." -Benjamin Disraeli <P>"It is much easier to be critical than to be correct." -Benjamin Disraeli <P>"Critics have their purposes, and they're supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, <BR>rather than concerning themselves with what they did." - Duke Ellington <P>"Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid and malignant race. As a bankrupt thief turns thief-taker in despair, so an unsuccessful author turns critic." -Percy Bysshe Shelley<P>"Drama critics are there to show gay actors what it is like to have a wife." -Hugh Leonard.<P>"Reviewing has one advantage over suicide: in suicide you take it out on yourself; in reviewing you take it out on other people" - George Bernard Shaw<P>"Those who can, do. Those who can't, critique." - Paraphrase of a famous quote<P>And my favourite, absolutely nothing to do with critics but testimony to the fact I spend way too much time collecting stuff like this.<P>"She had lost the art of conversation, but not, unfortunately, the power of speech." - George Bernard Shaw

I'm afraid that I have nothing useful to contribute except an ardent desire to make Clement Crisp our next King, or prime Minister or whatever...The man is a genius, and an amusing one too. <BR>I know: He taught me Dance History for a year, and his thoughts on Carla Fracci have coloured my view of her ever since. He countered that with a deep admiration for Lynn Seymour, who in his eyes could do no wrong.<BR>He is rather good on recipes too, as I recall.<BR>A most interesting chap all round, and very elegant, charming and cheeky with it. I wouldn't like to cross him, however, as I feel it would be hard to come out unscathed.

Red Shoes, that's an interesting insight on Clement Crisp. I wonder if, no, I assume that critics start out as more opinionated than a lot of us, and many develop it to a razor's edge.<P>I've been amused by critics, even when I don't agree with them. The legendary Dorothy Parker, who wrote book reviews for the New Yorker as "Constant Reader", wrote the following about "Winnie the Pooh".<P>"'Tonstant Weader twowed up." Apparently, she didn't like it.<P>Shazna, I love your collections. What else do you have?

Ms. Parker also damned a Katherine Hepburn performance by saying that, "She ran the gamut of emotions from 'A' to 'B'."<P>Then there was Brooks Atkinson's terse review of the play <I>I am a Camera</I>: "No Leica."<p>[This message has been edited by salzberg (edited May 26, 2001).]

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